After undergoing throat surgery, "The Walking Dead' executive producer Robert Kirkman has cancelled his scheduled appearances at this week's San Diego Comic-Con 2015.
Kirkman made a formal announcement of his absence at this year's event in a statement shared on Skybound Entertainment's website last July 7, Tuesday.
"It is with tremendous regret that I must inform you that I will not be attending Comic-Con International in San Diego this year," Kirkman wrote.
He also highlighted the panels from which he will be absent, particularly the Skybound Comics and Entertainment panels as well as those for "The Walking Dead' and "Fear the Walking Dead.' In addition, he has cancelled his appearance at the "Outcast' TV show panel.
Kirkman will not also be able to attend the signing event at the Image Comics/Skybound booth, the Skybound fifth anniversary, the "Air' premiere event and the Walker Stalker Fan Fest at Petco Park.
"Unfortunately, after years and years of being healthier than my physique would indicate I had to have minor surgery on my throat," Kirkman explained as to why it was necessary to cancel all his appearances at Comic-Con. "Nothing serious, but in the aftermath of such a fun experience, it comes with a brief duration of time where I'm unable to speak so all that pink business inside me can heal."
In over ten years, this will be the first time that Kirkman has missed the event, but he is already planning on making an impressive return next year. If the series creator's health condition improves soon, he is expected to attend the New York Comic-Con 2015 in October.
Meanwhile, Kirkman's "The Walking Dead' is set for a more "complicated" season as its sixth run is set to air this October.
In a recent interview with Nerdist, Norman Reedus aka Daryl Dixon shared about how the storytelling for the upcoming season will be greatly different from the other past seasons.
"There's lots of action and lots of drama and lots of sadness like we always bring, but this season's particularly complicated," Reedus explained. "The storylines are really interwoven with future and past."
Moreover, in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, showrunner Scott Gimple announced that the first eight episodes of the sixth season will incorporate elements that have been only been referenced as "past events" in the comics. These will serve as a sort of prequel to the episodes that will be released in the season's second half.
"I think there's a way that [executive producer] Robert [Kirkman] did some of the story that we're reaching that had a real past to it, where people are referring to some things in the past in the comic," Gimple shared.
A premiere date for "The Walking Dead' season six is expected to be announced at this year's San Diego Comic-Con.
